Talk about "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" here:
Review by: Breanne Derby
Plot Summary
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is based off of the book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. It tells the tale of thirty-something Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman), and it begins with the end of the world. Arthur discovers that his best friend Ford (Mos Def) is from an alien planet and that they must leave Earth quickly before it is destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Because of the impending doom of the planet Earth, Ford and Arthur hitch a ride with the aliens who are in charge of demolishing it. This story begins where Earth ends, and tells of Arthur's travels through space, and the amazing book called The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Review
The release of this film was something of a big deal to me. I read the Hitchhikers' books as a freshman in high-school, and had been impatiently anticipating the creation of the movie ever since then. I gathered together a group of fellow Hitchhiker fans and we went to the theater, accompanied by our towels, the day after it came out. I was a bit nervous about this film, because of the dreadful thought that the makers could possibly ruin the books a bit, and though it by no means did them justice, it could have conceivably been much worse. I sat down in the theatre, and the movie began. When the "So Long and Thanks For all the Fish" song played in the first scene of the movie, I was more than alarmed, I was terrified. However, that song was short-lived, and eventually the film progressed, and I got to see what
Hollywood had done to my Hitchhikers.
Being a fan of the books by Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Life, the Universe, and Everything, So Long and Thanks For All the Fish, and Mostly Harmless), I was somewhat disappointed by the film. As everyone knows, a movie made from a book can never measure up to the original book, and this is no exception. Actors and actresses will never be able to accomplish things the same way the imagination can, and even if they could, the scenery and characters' faces and mannerisms and voices could never be the same as you imagined it.
For those of you who haven't read the book, that is definitely the more beneficial way to go, and if you don't read, perhaps you should listen to the radio-show, or even watch the mini-series. All three of those did the story more justice than this film did. The book is riddled with humor and wit, where-as the film seemed to erase most of the humor, trading it instead for a love-story and the humor that was left was glazed over and forgotten. Personally, this was the biggest disappointment, because the book is SO INCREDIBLY FUNNY and the movie is not. I imagine if I had not read the book I would have given this film a "too bizarre to rate" rating because I would have been so baffled by it.
I was somewhat afraid of this film because the director had never directed anything before, and I saw the previews which showed Arthur, Ford, and Zaphod Beeblebrox (President of the Galaxy) being smacked in the face with flyswatters. This was rather discouraging, but nonetheless I went to see it, and though the effects were better than I'd thought they might be, they were nothing special.
Even-though there were things I did not like about the film, there were additions that I enjoyed, the Point of View Gun, for example. The idea of a gun that you point at someone and then shoot it and they get your point of view is very interesting, and I enjoyed the thought of it a lot.
Conclusion
As a whole I would say that this film is nothing more than mediocre, and I was disappointed. With such a phenomenal piece to work with, I expected something more. This could have been the best film of the year if it had been done properly. Instead, I thought of it as something of a flop, because after reading the books I was expecting more. I feel incredibly sorry for those people who don't tend to read the books of things unless they think that the film looked worthwhile, because The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy will be a book missed out on by many. I suppose there is still possibility for a better sequel (ha!) and I've heard rumors that a second and third film may be made, but the likeliness that they're anything more than rumors is slim-to-none, especially since the film has only been showing in theatres for a week. It is impossible to say what the future of Douglas Adams book-based-movies will be, but if there is a future, hopefully the next will be better than "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", but only time will tell, and as any galactic hitchhiker knows, "Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so."
